Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will decide soon how many civilian employees will be forced to take unpaid leave because of “sequestration” budget cuts, and those furloughs could impact the military services differently, an official said.
“We know that we have to make a decision soon,” Pentagon press secretary George Little told reporters Wednesday. “The secretary is reviewing analysis on the budget and he’ll reach a decision in the near future.”
Up to 750,000 of the Pentagon’s 800,000 civilian employees could be furloughed in fiscal year 2013, which ends Sept. 30, because of the $500 billion in long-term sequestration cuts to planned defense spending that started March 1.
The Pentagon’s plans for the furloughs have shifted. Hagel said on March 28 that civilian employees would face up to 14 days of furloughs through Sept. 30, instead of the 22 days of unpaid leave previously planned. That change came after President Barack Obama signed a defense bill into law that gave the Pentagon more budgeting flexibility by allowing it to reprogram funds in its coffers. Still, Hagel was not able to say precisely how many and which employees will be furloughed. And it is not clear if the cuts would apply to same to all of the services, as the Navy has reportedly said it could budget in a way to prevent furloughs.
The sequestration cuts–which are estimated to tap $40 billion in defense funding from March until October–were designed to be applied in an across-the-board manner to programs, projects and activities (PPA) accounts.
Asked about the possibility of the services taking different approaches to furloughs, Little said “the short answer is that there are different pockets of money in different places for each of the services.
“And, to be totally straightforward, the math does work for some services to avoid some furloughs, at a minimum,” he said. “For other services it’s harder. The general principle thus far has been ‘one team, one fight’ inside the department to drive consistency across the department. And I think that’s an understandable position.”
Little said Hagel is “reviewing our budget right now.” While officials previously said sequestration would tap $41 billion in defense spending this fiscal year, Little yesterday cited the figure as “$37 (billion) to $40 billion.”
Little lamented the “absurdity of sequestration,” saying the across-the-board manner of the cuts don’t’ leave “a whole lot of choice in some cases in terms of where to save money and where to cut.”
Pentagon Comptroller Robert Hale previously estimated the furloughs could apply to up to 750,000 of the Pentagon’s 800,000 civilian employees.
When originally proposed, all DOD civilian personnel were going to be furloughed for 22 days during the remainder of fiscal year 2013, which ends Sept. 30. Officials since have reduced that estimate to 14 days. DOD officials are examining requests for exemptions, Little said.
The Pentagon is required to notify Congress 45 days in advance of potential furloughs, and former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta provided such a warning to lawmakers on Feb. 20. However, as the defense bill neared final passage the Pentagon announced on March 21 that it would delay plans to issue furlough notices to civilian employees for approximately two weeks. (Defense Daily, March 22).